1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for routing communications traffic.
2. Description of the Related Art
The advent of the Internet has provided an impetus to integrate telecommunications services and Internet services. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service is a well-known outgrowth of such development. However, VoIP technology in its present form provides only a partial solution, as it cannot directly route telephone calls from one traditional telephone to another. One important difference between traditional telephony and Internet-based services is that traditional telephone networks terminate phone calls using telephone numbers defined by the universally adopted E.164 numbering system, while the Internet identifies its various nodes and resources using domain names and IP addresses.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has responded by developing the ENUM protocol, which translates telephone numbers into unique Internet domain names. Theoretically, if universally adopted by telecommunications service providers, a telecommunication device (e.g., a telephone or a facsimile machine) with a properly assigned ENUM can be reached directly through the Internet.
The development of such an ENUM system presupposes that a service provider would accept incoming calls to their customers at no cost to the sending carrier. So if the originating carrier undertook an ENUM query against a called number and discovered the identity and IP routing information for the terminating carrier, then the call could be routed directly to that carrier without further analysis.
VoIP peering relates to a relationship between carriers in which they agree to exchange VoIP traffic to keep the VoIP traffic as IP packets instead of using the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). VoIP peering uses the ENUM protocol to discover the identity of the carrier providing service to the called customer. In general, keeping the VoIP traffic on the IP networks lowers costs, improves quality, and allows implementation of IP-enabled services.
In contrast to the above-described VoIP peering and ENUM plans, telephone calls are typically routed by Time Division Multiplexer (TDM) and VoIP service providers using Least Cost Routing (LCR) plans. The LCR plans are entered into a TDM or VoIP switch and the switch routes incoming calls to the appropriate carrier partner based on the LCR plans, overflowing from the least expensive to the most expensive carrier if no capacity is available in the early route choices.
Most large service providers currently receiving termination payments for calls incoming to their customers will not likely give up this revenue stream. Thus, an ENUM or VoIP peering generated routing choice is not necessarily the most optimal as it cannot be assumed to be the lowest cost.
Furthermore, a switch of a service provider which receives a request for route does not query both LCR plans and VoIP peering routing choices for the same call. Rather, the switch chooses from either an LCR plan or a VoIP peering plan.